Im going to Italy in June and will gladly be a guinea pig for all the above methods and will let you know how Ive fared. You cant study in isolation until you are vaguely ready for interaction. At last my two people who inspired my language learning meet in one blog ^^. A learner has to distinguish the 13 or so different meanings of over, for example the picture is over the wall, the cat jumped over the gate, the class is over, you have to be over 18 to buy alcohol, you were driving over the speed limit, the fence fell over. And saying that adults are actually BETTER than children at learning language is like saying that adults are better than children at going through puberty, or children are better at going through menopause. pplet r rtt. Longtime reader and fan, first time commenter. This way I know I am truly using and practicing the language. Its because the system they have used to learn languages is broken. I also failed Gaeilge miserably, but in my mid-20s went to the Gaeltacht for the first time to learn it properly and it wasnt bad at all. I personally like to listen to people speaking in Spanish in youtube videos right now, which I know it will help me become more familiar with the pronunciation in this language. Additional Sentences from this video, where he actually decided to extend his range of grammatical structures to cover. To get into the mastery C1/C2 levels though, the requirements are very different. This post was awesome and just what Ive been looking for, thank you both! Thats the thing with Chinese, yes there are lots of characters to learn, but learning some particular ones will give you way more mileage than others. Lots of practice and study to improve those spoken sessions tends to get me to lower intermediate (B1) level, which means I can understand the other person speaking to me fine as long as they are willing to speak clearly and adjust to my level and mistakes. A lot. There are others who are highly motivated who successfully embrace 100% immersion on arrival, but my money is always on learning in advance and using time in the country to improve on already acquired speaking skills. I would really like to have a sentence demonstrating each case with each gender, plus its plurals. I hope you keep on discovering new languages and having fun! Web12 Sentences to Learn Languages the Tim Ferriss Way JanFinster Germany April 2021 Honestly, the only thing Tim Ferriss really knows something about is marketing and selling I have a friend learning Cantonese right now. Thank you for all of this information and the links. I agree that nothing beats being immersed in the culture, but you can emulate that experience online, even if its not AS good as the real thing. Well well well Tim Ferris. Ive written about how I learned to speak, read, and write Japanese, Mandarin, and Spanish. You wouldnt want to present falsities in a blog that is supposed to affect peoples lives in the real world. I was a refugee that struggled learning English and now I am fluent. Age changes in the ability to replicate foreign pronunciation and intonation. Ive found sounding like a moron isnt a big deal if the right intention is there. The earplugs are great. I have also used it with languages with good results. Benny is one of the many language learners that consistently wow me as well. I think the distinction worth noting here (without putting words in Bennys mouth) is that people generally recognize the fact that there is a sensitive period of language development and then use that as an excuse to not learn a new language. I used to do it (exclusively), but now Ive found that its way more practical to learn it in advance, get some practice online and hit the ground running when you arrive to make your time in the country even more enjoyable. Luck of the draw, right? has found that under the right circumstances, adults show an intuition for unexplained grammar rules better than their younger counterparts. Another option is watching a show you already know with no subtitles at all. Thank you so much for all the great materials that you put on your blog! http://www.fluentin3months.com/c2-exam-results-and-analysis/. My language exchanges have already vastly improved thanks to what I learned in the video and Id love to hear more. Il ne sagit donc que de ractiver ma mmoire pour que la moiti revienne sans trop de diffuclt! You cant get away from it in the literature and it is constantly referenced. You just never know what works for you and will hold your interest until you try. Most of the time, just target B2. Aiming for a solid C1 in two or three languages or going for more languages while aiming a bit lower at B2? Ferriss jokes he has haters in about 35 languages.. Ill definitely check out the book. I was actually quite shy when I was younger language learning has made me more outgoing. I want Tims blog posts but not all the comments. Glad you enjoyed it! Wow! The post shares nice information for those people helping them learn quickly and effectively. My 13 year old daughter can speak it, so of love to be able to surprise her! It turns out, there is no language-learning gene, but there are tools and tricks for faster learning. OK, the article that Benny referenced uses an experiment with children older than 8! As for my experiences with language, gosh so many. It is impossible to know the original source of a sentence. As Tim pointed out in his own post on learning any language in 3 months, you can take advantage of the Pareto principle here, and realize that 20% of the effort you spend on acquiring new vocab could ultimately give you 80% comprehension in a languagefor instance, in English just 300 words make up 65% of all written material. Ive always done better typing than speaking, even in my native language, can I go on Skype, Interpals, and other places, while still studying and type more than speak and still be successful? I review a variety of programs and I have used many. A better word is that language grows, meaning that children learn languages whether they want to or not. Looks like I have my work cut out for me if Im to keep up and try to reply to as many as I can . I should start adding pronunciations again. Telling me that when a direct object takes an indirect object, but only after the subject, but not before a preposition is when you use the X case doesn't help. This framework provides you with a way of setting specific language goals and measuring your own progress. Ill have to try this to learn Spanish fluently. http://teachers.italki.com/teaching-tips-from-austin-wood/. These are load verbs from English, and other languages. To really get you started on the many options available to help you learn your language without spending a penny, let me offer plenty of other (good) alternatives: You really do have plenty of options when it comes to free resources, so I suggest you try out several and see which ones work well for you. Been learning Spanish on Duolingo for a few months now and it feels so good to be making progress with it. Now to the problem. Jai regard votre vido sur la diffrence entre le franais de France et le franais du Canada. Pro Free account without a time limit The Basic account is totally free (has no time limit) and is very generous. Polish is considered one of the harder modern languages to learn. I have a question, though! Actually, I wanted to show you a yt video (in Spanish) where I recommend the 4HWW and explain how I learnt Spanish in only 2 months. Since we are being specific, its also important to point out that this does not require that you can work professionally in a language (in my case, as an engineer or public speaker, for instance). Your techniques sound like the best approach for rebooting my skills, so I can get my schnitzel and not the verdammtes geschnitzeltes. See More If anything it raises a smile if right or wrong. Tip #3: hang out in the cultural centres in your city and make friends with native speakers. I spent 9 months in classes and with private teachers learning in the tradition school way and barely a few words stayed in my head. It is an interesting post with really good advice, but I disagree with #6. Having fun should be a more popular goal while learning. Since we spend months in Thailand every year, Ive really been wanting to learn the language but has been putting it off as too difficult (other than a few casual phrases that mostly have to do with ordering beer ;)). Finding out the most commonly used words and nailing those puts you way ahead of the game. WebMemrise is more focused on increasing your vocabulary, so has very little on grammar and sentence structure. Here are the top newspapers in Europe, South America and Asia. And youll only need to recall this hook a couple of times, and then you can ditch it when the word becomes a natural part of your ability to use the language quickly. Et pas seulement avec les trangers mais avec les franais de la province aussi , Allez donc autre part en France, vous verrez quon est ravis de voir des trangers parler franais, mme sils ont du mal . Want to impress a girl/guy? Last year I started a project that provides free conversational languages lessons to folks who speak any of the 53 languages we teach in. Im really looking forward to putting this all to the test for learning Italian. whats trending on Youtube in that country right now. Italian is -zione and Portuguese is -o. Grab a copy, or check out my site for inspiration to start your adventure in becoming fluent in a new languageor several. Mandarin is an English word that can mean pretty much anything you want it to mean, but the OED defines it as The form of the Chinese language formerly used by officials and educated people generally; any of the varieties of this used as a standard language in China, spec. This definitive guest post by Benny will teach you: It contains TONS of amazing resources I never even knew existed, including the best free apps and websites for becoming fluent in record time. Many languages also have words that share a common (Greek/Latin or other) root, which can be spelled slightly differently, but that youd have to try hard not to recognize, such as exemple, hlicoptre (Fr), porto, capitano (Italian) astronoma, and Saturno (Spanish). Thanks for the heads up! Affirming that you just can learn to say the 13 sentences above to speak ANY language means underestimating the difficulties languages carry with them just because they are languages. They go hand in hand with culture, and this is something to bear in mind when studying any language. Google and Bing translate are good enough at translating text that you can use them for most things, Hi. In sum, Im not saying that learning a language into adulthood is a fools errand. For each language Its not a thing that you know or dont know; its a means of communication between human beings. Love the post Benny. Its true that adults are actually better language learners than kids. The idea is simple sentences like 'I give him the apple' can give clues about how a language fits together. Im not even 100% sure what that is in English! I just started using Talking Glass, a video language exchange website. The transformation was incredible! Hopefully this blog post inspires a few more people to check it out! Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. I am going to Oktoberfest in Munch this year so that should give me a good goal to aim for in being able to hold a conversation in German using this guide! I tried to unsubscribe but was unsuccessful. Such wonderful experiences are well within the reach of many of you. Movies/T.V. When you watch subtitled movies it is easy to become very good in a different language even if you dont pay the effort. Adults need to be more pro-active, but can process things like grammar rules way better, and kids can absorb naturally quicker, since they dont have any other language to fall back on. Biological Foundations of Language , New York: Wiley and Sons. They do better with podcasts and television shows. At least, thats what most people believe. Im glad you said something Scott otherwise I would felt obliged to point it out, haha. I had an accent trainer show me how this worked, and I found out some fascinating differences between my own Irish accent and American accents in the process! Slang has also been inspired by English, and new words have come into the language: televisio (telkkari), media, radio, turbulenssi, banaani, tomaatti, etc. Question of the Day: What tools or approaches have you used for learning languages? Has served me well. This is the first program that has all of the major pieces needed for success. I just downloaded it to my phone with some flashcards and love it. A good place to start could be Krashen et al. Technology makes it possible for immersion to come to you, and you dont even have to buy a plane ticket. Of course. On typical learning days I can be filled with frustration or feel like my brain is melting whenin factIm truly making a lot of progress. One of the most researched areas in second language acquisition is the critical/sensitive period for learning language. [1] Learn jokes in the foreign language. But there are exceedingly few teachers who are enlightened enough to teach it that way., http://thepenngazette.com/characters-in-search-of-writers/. I wouldnt recommend this. In one of the first sentences from benny, it says In think instead of I think. For someone talking about languages you might wanna fix it haha , Yep, we fixed that typo! and make sure the conversation is constantly progressing. However that I have to add that rules 2 and 5 dont work with Finnish, the language Im currently learning. Tim Ferriss has a list of I think nine or 12 sentences that he uses in order to deconstruct a language. I have an apple. I give you an apple. Id love to hear your thought. Also, Benny, Tim what do you think about InnovativeLanguages tools, like Chinese101, ThaiPod101 and others? From day one to day 90 (and beyond), I speak at least an hour a day in my L2, and my study time is tailored around the spoken sessions to make sure that my conversation is whats improvingnot just my general language skills through some vague list of words I may never use. My name is John. And also, it was a low exposure environment and all they had to do was learn one new grammar rule. While you can do a lot in a few months, if you want to speak a language for the rest of your life it requires constant practice, improvement, and living your life through it as often as you can. Free resources and memory tricks? Viel Erfolg! I was using duolingua and other forums to connect to people, it helped a bit. So while great tips (and I should spend more time doing those things), it doesnt always work that easily. Would such a blog be monetizable Is the idea of making money off a spiritual blog distasteful? But its not too late for us! (I never spoke a word of French 3 years ago) The key for me to learn French was the motivation. And in last moments, everything got figured out and my friend and the truck stopped at the same gas station. Those are concepts that Spanish children understand instinctively without any need for formal instruction. These things are not wanted here. Timwould you consider doing a blog post elaborating on your system for tandem practice, including your complete list of useful questions and phrases? I am simply pointing out a comment mistake. It was simply more practical for me with my extensive 11 years full-time travel to cast my net wider. Great article, so much information to absorb. Hi Agne, noticed your comment here and thought Id share a blog article that provides a run down of some of these similar types of tools. For fossilisation in grammar, check: Lardiere, D. 1998a: Case and Tesne in The Fossilised Steady State. A smartphone translation wont make a foreigners face light up like the moment when you speak to them in their mother tongue. That is, inexperienced language learners who are afraid of speaking and making mistakes might find the experience of "speaking early" liberating. But, when you are a kid you can be a quick learner as well . Its why I role-play such chats with my teachers via Skype . many of which you will find listed out here for most languages, Lift plan for language learning that I wrote for their users here, grammatically deconstructing a language right from the start, the second half of this post with Soundcloud samples, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB-bgMixT_s, http://www.fluentin3months.com/cantonese/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk1aPBazfjo, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d40MFeN6HYM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGj55RWh0eE, http://bradonomics.com/stupid-learn-second-language/, http://austinkwood.com/make-money-on-skype, http://teachers.italki.com/teaching-tips-from-austin-wood/, http://www.fluentin3months.com/translator-app/, 12 Rules for Learning Foreign Languages in Record Time The Only Post You'll Ever Need, How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour (Plus: A Favor), How to Learn Any Language in Record Time and Never Forget It, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. So, for instance, I may start a session by asking what my native friend or teacher did over the weekend, and tell them what I did. The correlation is there, and its very strong. Ich werde es morgen wissen. This is one of the best posts on this blog yet! It was born out of the need to create work in France. I tried learning Japanese, Spanish and Thai using this type of method and failed to learn all three languages. Best wishes, Belinda (Australia). But, is it possible to have a 15-minute conversation after learning a second language from scratch? Also in Hong Kong, you will NEVER hear people say I am studying Zhongwen because Zhongwen is Mandarin for Chinese. An excellent post. Activating subtitles in your mother tongue (English for instance) is a really bad idea on the other hand, since you can get distracted and only read that. You dont have to go on Skype! Ill instagram my success this summer. . I thought it was pretty funny when I went to New York City and spoke more French there in a day, than I did for my job, for which I must speak French, in Qubec. But there is great stuff out there. . To get this high-level practice, Ive subscribed to newspapers on my Kindle that I try to read every day from various major news outlets around the world. Thanks for the kick in the butt been married to an Iranian beauty for more than 10 years and even bought your book years ago, but never got around to doing anything with it. I know youre an Uber investor and would appreciate you checking out my work! Ive also made time while standing in lines or waiting for people or on public transport, to squeeze in more language studying. For instance, lets say you are learning Spanish and cant seem to remember that caber means to fit, no matter how many times you see it. Its a biological endowment that we lose. It is not something that we retain throughout our entire lives. I already knew a lot of Spanish when I found Benny, but I was "speaking from day one" in that I learned it school and learning "how to say" something was motivating for me. . Very motivating! I always carry a pair I had made to my ears years back but extras are always good to have and the carry case is cool. This is great. Help! What I like the most about Benny is that he is so genuine in his approach. After reading a lot of books and blogs and watching people's vlogs and lectures, I have come to the conclusion that everyone has to try all the techniques until they find what works for them. Personally, I believe that the main factor stopping people from embracing a new language is FEAR. Everything is very cool. Thank you so much for those reviews. Will do! I saw your comment yesterday and it took me a day of thinking but I have a hint for you! This post has been an extremely detailed look at starting off and trying to reach mastery in a foreign language (and even passing yourself off as a native of that country). As a language teacher I did not understand how he thinks with 40 hours you can have a 15 minute conversation. Some of the computer-generated sentences are so absurd you cannot possibly forget them, and who knows, one day I may need to say I have a snake in my shoe in Italian. Enjoy the book! They are Real Interest (my case) and Real Need. Im not saying I knew all this, but I wasted a very long time trying to learn English the wrong way, and actually learnt it pretty well in a much shorter time the right way. For this, intonation is pivotal. "You speak Spanish!" In other words, they learn the language through perceptual channels that become integrated with the limbic system. I am all for people of any age, older or younger, getting encouragement in a language but falsifying facts really irks me, especially when its done just to sell something. Correct information is always valuable in my opinion. Im a big fan of Benny. I am learning mandarin (inspired by 4 hour chef, although Im still a beginner:A1), and I cant tell you the amount of times Ive sat down on the train next to a Chinese speaker, opened up my vocabulary sheets to practice, and they have (unsolicited) asked oh, are you learning Chinese?, and started helping me. Ive met countless expats who lived abroad for years without learning the local language. Bennythanks for this comprehensive post, Ive passed it around to several friends! (this is quite old but Lenneberg was one of the first to suggest that language learning ability decreases with age. But waitwhere do you find a native speaker if you arent in the country that speaks that language? Kevin Kelly on Excellent Advice for Living, Universal AI Assistants, Time Machines, and The Power of Fully Becoming Yourself (#669). As always, a great read. I want to start a blog for people who are Spiritual But Not Religious. I got to more or less fluency level within 3 months. This can be emulated through filling your calendar with 1-on-1 lessons, and having specific goals like reading a certain amount or watching so many hours of content in the language per week. The worst in my German class in school, only able to speak English into my twenties, and even after six entire months living in Spain, I could barely muster up the courage to ask where the bathroom was in Spanish. Another great site I use is http://www.linguee.com. But I understood what I was reading via those language patterns much easier than anything I had learned in English. Today I can usually order the food I want at a restaurant in Berlin, and I understand most of what the bartender says, but I otherwise feel quite helpless in expressing myself. I saw that Uber recently launched in Panama City and Im an ideal fit for the community manager role. What these experiments prove is that adults are more intelligent, not better language learners. I used a dictionary real quick and confirmed that Internet is the same in Finnish for instance. Hopefully next time we meet it will be for more than a brief moment, but if it was after MY Marathon, Id be needing to chill out at home too! Critical is fine, but if youre rude, well delete your stuff. The short version is, I reached out to people like Benny for advice and everyone kept saying that I needed to do more. Finally, to make your project Time-bound, I highly recommend a short end-point of a few months. And what do words like fluency and mastery mean on a practical level? Just wanted to add that for example the first-rank American sinologist Victor Mair at Penn is against learning/teaching Hanji at the beginning: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/03/02/more-on-how-to-argue-for-foreign-language-instruction/, Its a tragedy that so many young Americans spend years stuffing their heads with hundreds of Chinese characters, gaining no usable proficiency, and then forgetting them all by the time theyre 25. Mair thinks that if the Chinese would wake up and permit pinyin to function as part of a genuine digraphia, then I would say it might make sense for maybe 2 percent of the population to learn up to third-year level of Mandarinstrictly romanized, mind you. Also, you can make the time. After reading up on various topics, I like to get an experienced professional (and ideally pedantic) teacher to grill me on the topic, to force me out of my comfort zone, and make sure Im using precisely the right words, rather than simply making myself understood. Excellent post. (Wishing you lots of success!). Focusing on speaking and listening (and maybe reading) makes fluency in a few months much more realistic. Which strategy would you follow? Which it did . 7. I will never be able to cancel this quarterly subscription ever! I put together a resource for deconstructing foreign language grammar using Tim Ferriss golden sentences method, that some of you might be familiar with. I know what I should be doing, but I dont. To find common words with the language you are learning, simply search for [language name] cognates or [language name] English loan words to see words they borrowed from us, and finally [language name] words in English to see words we borrowed from them. And if full-on immersion isnt your thing yet, theres even a plugin for Chrome that eases you into the language by translating some parts of the sites you normally read in English, to sprinkle the odd word into your otherwise English reading. Accent is obvious; if you cant roll your R in Spanish you will be recognized as a foreigner instantly. I also found youtube quite helpful! As I say in this blog posts; I like to make at least 200 mistakes a day, and thats not just in foreign languages . Living abroad and being immersed is not the same thing. Your tongue muscles are not set in their ways forever, and you can learn the very few new sounds that your L2 requires that you learn. Sorry Mike, but that wouldnt be nearly as effective or rewarding as actually learning the target language. Benny has posted some very useful links and advice. Pick your favorite movie (one youd watch over and over again without getting tired of it), and watch it in your target language. Id also used it before effectively to get some basic holiday Greek and learn the Greek alphabet. Im a Spanish teacher, and have learned several other languages as well.
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